Decorating your home involves more than just choosing furniture. Carefully selected home décor items warm up a house and express your unique personality. If you truly want a well-furnished home, there are a number of essential home décor items that you should be considering. If you’re in the process of furnishing your first home, here are some of the items you should be looking for in addition to essential furniture.
Window Treatments
Bare windows can make a room appear cold or sterile, so choosing the right window treatments is an important part of the home decorating process. The colors and styles that you choose for your window treatments will play a large part in determining the overall style and mood of the room. For a more formal look, floor length drapes in solid or subtle prints are an excellent choice. Less formal looks for the bedroom include light colored drapes with subtle embroidery at the valance and along the sides.
Kitchen curtains can be more casual, and often include country and traditional style motifs. Kids’ room, family room and bedroom window treatments should reflect the style and personality of the room’s occupant. Choose colors that coordinate with the walls and floor in the room.
Rugs and Floor Coverings
Next to the walls, the floor is the biggest decorating space you have available in any room. Taking advantage of that space is just good decorating sense. Rugs can add a lot of color, texture and character to any room. Oriental designs are among the most popular, but a floral design or a subtle striped 8x10 area rug can create a great background for a furniture grouping or help set off part of the space in a room for a specific purpose.
There are also rugs that are designed for specific purposes. Half-round slice rugs are very popular for kitchen floors where they help protect the floor in front of the sink or the stove, as well as providing a comfortable cushion for your feet. Runners are designed to cover the center of a longer hallway or to be placed over a carpet or floor to designate a pathway through the room.
Another important design element in your rooms is the lighting. Choosing the right lighting for your rooms can greatly enhance the style and mood of your living room or bedroom and make work more comfortable in the kitchen and family rooms. There are many different styles and types of lighting including table lamps, floor lamps and ceiling lamps.
Ambient lighting, accent lighting or task lighting can be used in various rooms throughout your home to create different moods. Ambient lighting is often provided by dimming ceiling lights that shed soft light over the entire room. A trio of hanging mini-pendant lights is versatile enough to provide task lighting or area lighting over a dining room table. chandeliers are also often centered over tables, but usually provide less directed ambient light. Table lamps often provide task lighting, as do floor lamps.
Lamps also provide style accents. The lamp body and shade should fit into the overall décor of your room and a bold pop of color, or complement your current color scheme. Tiffany style lamps have a far different design effect than a standing pole floor lamp with a simple drum shade. Be sure to choose lights and lamps that suit your design style and strategically place them to best accent the features of your rooms.
Wall Décor
Nothing looks emptier or starker than an undecorated wall. Walls offer space for shelves, pictures, wall hangings, photos, clocks and mirrors. Finding just the right accent pieces to hang on your walls can be a joy, but it can also present quite a challenge. Traditionally, most homes have a wall clock in each room that fits that room’s décor. The living room nearly always features a painting or a set of paintings above the sofa, and a smaller grouping of wall pieces on the walls that can be seen from the sofa.
Over the years, there have been many fads and trends in wall décor, and you can often find pieces that you’ll love at yard sales or buy wall collections online. Framed prints by artists like Thomas Kinkade are popular for living rooms and family rooms. Unframed, stretched canvases are less formal and are very popular in bedrooms and dens, though they’ve made their way into even the most formal of living rooms. Wall plaques and all art pieces like the very popular Thousand Eyes peacock sculpture also have their place in living room design and décor.
Your furniture and walls are like the skeletons of your home. If you really want to make a style statement, you need flesh out the bones with the right décor pieces.
Feng Shui Lighting Presents: Flora & Fauna
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WHITE SILVER FLUSH DRUM CEILING CHANDELIER PENDANT LIGHT FIXTURE LAMP $599.99 |
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Silk and Silver DRUM PENDANT with Crystals, 3 Light Chandelier Hollywood Regency $525.80 |
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MODERN BLACK DRUM + CRYSTAL CEILING CHANDELIER PENDANT LIGHTING FIXTURE $369.99 |
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3-Light White Fabric Drum Shade Crystal Chandelier Lighting Ceiling Pendant Lamp $359.99 |
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Contemporary 5-Light Black Drum Shade Crystal Chandelier Lighting Lamp Pendant $329.99 |
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Murray Feiss Sunset Drive 3-Light Drum Chandelier Pendant $299.99 |
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Brown Drum Shade 160 Crystal Chrome Ceiling Chandelier Lighting Pendant Lamp $299.99 |
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Custom Drum Pendant Chandelier (You Choose Colors ) $285.00 |
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Progress Lighting P8825-01 Modular Pendant Shade, Beige Silken Fabric $157.50 Progress Lighting P8825-01 Modular pendant system. Choose shade and 1-light stem (P5198) or 3-light stem (P5199) to make complete fixture. 22" Drum Shade with Beige Silken Fabric inspired by mid-century design. Beige Silken Fabric Must be used with P5198 or P5199 to make a complete unit. Must be used with P5198 or P5199 to make a complete unit.... |
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Lite Source LS-19148 Olwen 18-Inch Ceiling Lamp, Chrome with White Paper Shade $111.50 Light a dark area of your home with this attractive, well-shaped ceiling fixture. The round, white craft paper shade houses three bulbs while the hardware features a chrome finish. Chrome finish. White, fabric shade. Round shape. Takes three 60 watt bulbs (not included). 18" wide. 71" high.... |
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Progress Lighting P8823-01 Modular Pendant System Choose Shade and 1-Light Stem (P5198) Or 3-Light Stem (P5199) To Make Complete Fixture 16-Inch Drum Shade, Beige Silken Fabric $61.83 Progress Lighting P8823-01 Modular pendant system. Choose shade and 1-light stem (P5198) or 3-light stem (P5199) to make complete fixture. 16" Drum Shade Beige Silken Fabric inspired by mid-century design. Beige Silken Fabric Must be used with P5198 or P5199 to make a complete unit. Must be used with P5198 or P5199 to make a complete unit.... |
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Polished Chrome 3-light Drum Pendant Light Fixture $102.99 Designed with enduring style, this light fixture features a polished chrome finish with black velvet lace shades. This indoor three-light drum pendant offers warm illumination and a touch of style to any living space. |
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Pinstripe Black Polished Chrome 5-light Drum Pendant $179.99 Enhance your interior decor with this five-light drum pendant. With a polished chrome finish, this light fixture will bring understated elegance into your dining room or sitting room. |
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Silver Mist Chandelier $205.99 Allow you decor to shout elegance with this Silver Mist chandelier. This light features a cream, drum-shape faux silk translucent shade accented by hanging crystals. |
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Silver Mist Crystal Chandelier $130.99 Enhance your room decor with this silver mist crystal chandelier. This stylish chandelier features a cream drum-shape faux silk shade with hanging crystal beads. |
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Geometric Pendant Light $60.99 A drum shape with geometric designs on metal shade makes this pendant light something to talk about. |
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Metal Leaf Pendant Light $58.99 A tall drum shape and double shades give this pendant light a style of its own. This lighting has a black metal outer shade with a leaf pattern. |
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English Manor Burnished Brass 6-light Chandelier $174.99 Add light and style to your home decor with the English Manor 6-light chandelierLighting fixture combines the classics of burnished brass and espresso wood finishesChandelier includes pleated drum shades |
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English Manor 5-light Chandelier $165.99 Brighten your home decor with an elegant English Manor chandelierFive-light pendant features both burnished brass and espresso wood finishesChandelier has beautiful pleated drum shades |
